Apple Acquires Beddit; Will Watch Sport Sleep-Tracking Features Soon?
Apple has reportedly acquired Beddit, a company that develops apps and devices to help people track their sleeping activities. Will this mean the Apple Watch will soon get sleep monitoring features?
The acquisition was confirmed by Beddit through an update in its Privacy Policy earlier this week. It notified its users that their "personal data will be collected, used and disclosed in accordance with the Apple Privacy Policy."
On the other hand, Beddit has reportedly taken down a webpage where people can find links to Beddit apps for the Apple Watch, according to CNBC.
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At the moment, the terms of the acquisition has not been disclosed as per TechCrunch's report.
Smartwatches like the Apple Watch have become the go-to for most fitness watchers since they combine the function of a smartwatch and a fitness tracker. Apparently, to meet that need, the Apple Watch Series 2 was built with its independent GPS device so its users can go for a run and monitor their stats without having to bring their smartphones with them.
Meanwhile, tracking sleeping activity is slowly becoming another important way of staying healthy. Research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, "An estimated 50-70 million US adults have sleep or wakefulness disorder."
Because of this, sleep tracking features are slowly becoming some of the more interesting elements in wearables and fitness trackers along with heart rate sensors.
Fitbit has also debuted a sleep tracking feature in the Fitbit Alta HR that was announced last March.
The sleep tracking feature found in the Fitbit Alta HR functions with the help of its heart rate sensors. The new smartwatch can provide a detailed analysis of the user's sleeping activities by monitoring their heart rate as well as the time the user spends in various sleeping stages, which start from being awake, to rapid eye movement, light sleep and deep sleep.
However, Apple has yet to shed light on their plans of adding a native sleep tracking sensor or app to the next versions of the Apple Watch.
